Happy 50th Birthday, Kurt Cobain

I feel like I owe him a lot. I was basically done with music by the mid-80s. I despised the over-produced, androgynous hair-spray-and-spandex music that was ascendant at the time and MTV in general, I thought, had caused rock to lose its energy and focus and become a shit-show of posing and artsy-fartsy soft-focus video. About 1989, I started to hear new music on the college radio station (KFJC) I was listening to at that time -- music that I could actually feel viscerally as opposed to simply passively consume. At the time, I had sold all my gear, being focused on my new career and my family.

After hearing early Nirvana, Mudhoney, etc. I went out and got myself a Squier II SSH strat, a Peavey Rage amp, and haven't looked back since.
 
I feel like I owe him a lot. I was basically done with music by the mid-80s. I despised the over-produced, androgynous hair-spray-and-spandex music that was ascendant at the time and MTV in general, I thought, had caused rock to lose its energy and focus and become a shit-show of posing and artsy-fartsy soft-focus video. About 1989, I started to hear new music on the college radio station (KFJC) I was listening to at that time -- music that I could actually feel viscerally as opposed to simply passively consume. At the time, I had sold all my gear, being focused on my new career and my family.

After hearing early Nirvana, Mudhoney, etc. I went out and got myself a Squier II SSH strat, a Peavey Rage amp, and haven't looked back since.

You sound exactly like me and what Kurt and the others at that time did for me. I had basically given up getting a band going around 89 or so. Everyone I tried to start with was more concerned about their "look" than the music. When I got to college (after a few years off) I stumbled into an old acquaintance and he was looking for a bass player for his band. Since it was ok again to wear jeans and a t-shirt, I was in.
 
I feel like I owe him a lot. I was basically done with music by the mid-80s. I despised the over-produced, androgynous hair-spray-and-spandex music that was ascendant at the time and MTV in general, I thought, had caused rock to lose its energy and focus and become a shit-show of posing and artsy-fartsy soft-focus video. About 1989, I started to hear new music on the college radio station (KFJC) I was listening to at that time -- music that I could actually feel viscerally as opposed to simply passively consume. At the time, I had sold all my gear, being focused on my new career and my family.

After hearing early Nirvana, Mudhoney, etc. I went out and got myself a Squier II SSH strat, a Peavey Rage amp, and haven't looked back since.
I feel the opposite on the subject. I was 14 in 1987 when I started playing guitar. I loved all those 80's hair bands and also the 80's metal too. When Nirvana and the Seattle movement came out I hated that suddenly everyone (seemingly) could barely play 4 chords. It spelled the end of the shredder guitar player and I wasn't happy about that!
Now, 20-25 years later I can listen back on that music and appreciate it for what it was but back then I hated it.
And compared to the trash coming out today, I'd gladly take those 4 chord bashers!!
 
I was in grade school during the Nirvana nirvana.

They definitely seemed popular overnight. Certainly helped them that MTV and radio were playing them to death. I liked the band though and ended up with a few of their albums.

Almost simultaneously the whole Gangsta Rap craze really took off and I much more clearly remember it going from Vanilla Ice and MC Hammer, to Dre and Snoop.

Basically, Hair Bands = Vanilla Ice

:grin:
 
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I distinctly remember the first time I ever heard Smells Like Teen Spirit. I was a 1st year just arrived at Uni. They played it in a student nightclub and the place exploded. I was like "What the fuck was that!". :rawk:

I also distinctly remember the day he died. I was now coming towards my final year at Uni and everyone was totally shocked. That band played a big part in my student days.
 
I feel the opposite on the subject. I was 14 in 1987 when I started playing guitar. I loved all those 80's hair bands and also the 80's metal too. When Nirvana and the Seattle movement came out I hated that suddenly everyone (seemingly) could barely play 4 chords. It spelled the end of the shredder guitar player and I wasn't happy about that!
Now, 20-25 years later I can listen back on that music and appreciate it for what it was but back then I hated it.
And compared to the trash coming out today, I'd gladly take those 4 chord bashers!!

I never understood why guitar players bashed the Seattle bands. Jerry Cantrell is a monster on guitar (Eddie Van Halen heard them and had them open on a Van Halen tour)and Pearl Jam had solos all over the place. Soundgarden were riffing machines with heavy guitars. The only Seattle band that didn't have great playing was Nirvana. It's almost like people only heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and bashed the whole scene.
 
I never understood why guitar players bashed the Seattle bands. Jerry Cantrell is a monster on guitar (Eddie Van Halen heard them and had them open on a Van Halen tour)and Pearl Jam had solos all over the place. Soundgarden were riffing machines with heavy guitars. The only Seattle band that didn't have great playing was Nirvana. It's almost like people only heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and bashed the whole scene.

As usual, Chad is right. I was deep in the thrash/death scene at the time and we all loved grunge. Poor songwriting and laughable aesthetics killed the Shred scene, not Cobain.
 
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I never understood why guitar players bashed the Seattle bands. Jerry Cantrell is a monster on guitar (Eddie Van Halen heard them and had them open on a Van Halen tour)and Pearl Jam had solos all over the place. Soundgarden were riffing machines with heavy guitars. The only Seattle band that didn't have great playing was Nirvana. It's almost like people only heard Smells Like Teen Spirit and bashed the whole scene.
Yeah, I said Seattle but the 3 bands you mentioned, I actually like. I should have made reference to the scene that followed them.
 
I liked SLTP on the first few listens, but the endless overplaying of Nirvana no Pearl Jam soured on those bands rather quickly. It also didn't help that to me Soundgarden were the best of bunch from a song and singing perspective. Cornell has pipes for eons, regardless of who writes them Kim plays some of the heaviest riffs ever, Ben is probably the real foundation, and Matt is just a stellar rock drummer.

Anyway, it took more than a decade to get the point of being able to appreciate Kurt's voice and minimalistic/rudimentary playing enough to start enjoying the band. I can't say the same for Pearl Jam, as Eddie has one of those perpetually on goat-like vibratoes that I just don't like. That said, I enjoy some of his work outside of Pearl Jam...along with a handful of PJ tunes.

For me, the end of hair band era was a good thing. I got more into heavier metal, alternative/college music, prog rock/metal, jam bands, jazz, folk, blues, as well as further engulfing myself in the classic stuff that I grew up with (r&b, '60s and '70s Rock, reggae, etc.). The grunge thing was not my bag...especially the versions that morphed into Creed, that band Madonna helped become big, etc. All that stuff was the 90's version of grunge/alternative, as the hair bands were the 80's version of hard rock and metal...cookie cutter passion-less pablum.

Kurt was not s particularly like-able character and being so young and stupid myself I thought he was a lame whiny bitch for a few months before I started thinking about the drug addiction and mental issues that are often the catalyst for such horrible decision making. I can't imagine what he must have been going through, thankfully. In hindsight, it's hard to not appreciate the inspiration that he was regardless of my lack of love at the time.
 
I worked with a lot of the 'grunge' bands named above. I consider many of those people acquaintances and a few, friends.

It's unfortunate that we look at things through the prism of guitar -- while I enjoyed Soundgarden (BIG DUMB SEX!!!!), I'd like to make my most brief, pointed defense of Nirvana that I can:
Music is meant to communicate with others.
Kurt was an all-world communicator.
And a tremendous melodicist.
And great vocalist.

What he communicated was a sense of fury at feeling discarded. If you were white, poor, suburban and born in the 60's, and hence lived through your parents engaging in the "Me Decade" of the 70's, chances are you did not get a lot of positive messages about your self worth. Punk worked in a way, but it was repetitive and at times just lacked emotional complexity (at least hardcore in the early 80's did for me).

What a lot of those 'grunge' bands (and I hate the term - please know that Mudhoney have more in common from an artistic perspective with the Red Krayola the Wipers than with Pearl Jam, membership in Green River notwithstanding).

Kurt moved people because he basically said "I know you - I'm just like you. My parents didn't care enough about me to take care of me, let alone give me a sense of self worth. Worse, they discarded me." If you've ever been there, it feels like shit. I know all about kids in sub-Saharan Africa, but when you feel worthless, The Rage comes. And when you get old enough to realize you aren't even actually worthless, it doesn't stem the anger - it puts it into relief.

What some don't seem to understand was how validating that was to a generation that had been invalidated over and over. If that's not you -- good! I wouldn't wish it on anyone. When I listen to Nirvana, I'm not thinking "what does he mean, 'a mosquito?'" I'm thinking: FUCK you, Dad, for ignoring my birthday even though you made a big deal of my sister's. For telling me "I neither respect you nor love you" when I had a nervous breakdown.

He gave a voice to throwaway suburban kids, and did it really fucking well. There's a reason our most popular T-shirt (still, I think) read "LOSER."
 
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